Russian and its rulers 1917 - 1964

1
Russian and its rulers 1917 - 1964
2
1917 The Russian Revolutions

• Two revolutions
• February (March)
• October (November)
• October (November)
• The February Revolution
• Tsar Nicholas II abdicated
• Two groups claimed power
• The Provisional Government (former members of the
  Duma)
• The Petrograd Soviet (Workers Council)
• The Provisional Government failed to reform and
  lost popularity
• Continued fighting (and losing) in the First
  World War
• Failed to re-distribute the nobles land to the
  peasants
• Lenin and the Bolsheviks (Communists) gained
  support with their demand for Peace, Bread and
  Land.
• In October 1917 the Provisional Government was
  overthrown and the Bolsheviks, who by then
  dominated the Petrograd Soviet, seized power.
• See OXLEY Chapter 5, pages 90 - 109, for details

3
Lenin 1917 - 24

• Lenin began with some key reforms such as the
  Decree on Land (giving it to the peasants) and
  the Decree on Peace
• Lenin made peace with Germany in March 1918 - the
  Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - surrendering and
  agreeing harsh terms (e.g. lost territory)
• From 1918 - 20 the Russian Civil War took place -
  an attempted counter-revolution by the White
  Army. The Bolshevik Red Army, organised by Leon
  Trotsky, was victorious.
• During the Civil War Lenin imposed War Communism,
  which involved taking the peasants grain, and
  set up his secret police, the Cheka. The Cheka
  crushed opposition using methods known as Red
  Terror.
• By 1921 the Russian economy was virtually
  collapsed and inflation and food shortages caused
  a serious famine in the Volga region. Red sailors
  at the Kronstadt Naval Base rebelled and were
  crushed.
• Lenin abandoned War Communism and introduced his
  New Economic Policy (NEP), allowing peasants to
  become more prosperous.
• Lenin was shot in 1918. His health deteriorated
  seriously and from 1922 he suffered strokes and
  was an invalid.
• A Triumvirate (Kamenev, Zinoviev Stalin) ruled
  for Lenin who died in January 1924.
• See OXLEY Chapters 6 and 7, pages 112 - 141, for
  details

4
The Power Struggle 1924 - c.1928

• Leon Trotsky was Lenins obvious successor as he
  had organised the October Revolution and victory
  in the Russian Civil War
• He was unpopular with the other communist leaders
  in the Politburo (cabinet) and tactically naïve
• The Politburo were divided between those who
  supported the NEP (the rightists) and those who
  wanted to tax the peasants and industrialise
  rapidly (the leftists)
• Before his death, Lenin had privately written his
  testament calling for Stalin to be sacked because
  of his rudeness
• Stalin was underestimated by his colleagues who
  thought him rather dull
• Stalin overcame these disadvantages using his
  post of General Secretary of the Communist Party
  to influence events.
• By 1925 Stalins policy of Socialism in One
  Country (pro-NEP) had become official party
  policy
• By 1928 Stalin had been able to sack all the
  leading leftists (Trotsky, Zinoviev Kamenev)
  for opposing his policy.
• He had become the effective leader of the Soviet
  Union.
• See OXLEY Chapter 8, pages 142 - 161, for details

5
Stalin 1928 - 1953

• In 1928 Stalin abandoned the NEP and introduced
  rapid industrialisation with his Five Year Plans.
• In the countryside Stalin forced the peasants to
  give up their land to state run collective farms
  - his policy of collectivisation.
• In 1929 Stalin demanded the extermination of
  richer peasants (called Kulaks) as a class.
• The secret police (variously known as OGPU, NKVD
  KGB) led a terror campaign - the Purges and
  Show Trials - in the 1930s.
• Opponents were executed and millions were sent to
  forced labour camps (called Gulags) in the frozen
  wastelands of Siberia.
• As a result of the Five Year Plans the Soviet
  Union industrialised rapidly and was ultimately
  able to survive the invasion by Nazi Germany in
  1941.
• By 1945 Stalins Soviet Union was victorious,
  with their wartime allies (the USA GB).
• From 1945 the Soviet Union gained control over
  most Eastern European countries leading to a
  Cold War between Stalin his former allies.
• By the time of Stalins death the Soviet Union
  was a superpower having developed nuclear weapons
  from 1949
• See OXLEY Chapters 9 - 13, pages 162 - 255 for
  details

6
Khrushchev 1955 - 1964

• Between 1953 and 1955 Stalins death was followed
  by a power struggle
• The main contenders were Malenkov and Khrushchev
• By 1955 Khrushchev, the General Secretary, was
  victorious and Malenkov forced to resign his post
• In 1956 Stalin made a speech criticising Stalin -
  his so-called secret speech.
• This led to de-Stalinisation and the Thaw -
  greater freedom and somewhat better relationships
  with the west
• Khrushchev launched a Virgin Lands policy -
  growing crops in areas previously unused for
  arable farming for obvious reasons this was a
  huge failure
• In 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first
  satellite to orbit the earth - Sputnik - Yuri
  Gugarin became the first man in space in 1961
• The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was viewed as a
  dfeat by many of his colleagues in the Politburo
• By 1964 Khrushchev was under attack in the
  Politburo many of his policies were labelled as
  hare-brained schemes. He was forced to resign.
• See OXLEY Chapter 14, pages 256 - 271, for
  details